"You can not fail if you resolutely determine that you will not." -Abraham Lincoln

Doc Mike Hides His Stipend and the Hypocritic Oath

I’ve seen a copy of a mailer sent out by Doc Mike Katz. He is running for “re-election” in a newly drawn district, and for the most part, his campaign literature seems to be him in a lab coat hobnobbing with Governor Markell. That is until his hypocrite streak kicked in..

It seems that the good doctor is whining that Greg Lavelle gives too much of his legislative compensation to charity ($30,000 at last count). Doc Mike points out that Rep. Lavelle hasn’t returned his stipend for serving in leadership. The problem is that Doc Mike has served for 4 years on the Joint Sunset Committee and so is also receiving a stipend. And Doc Mike also hasn’t mentioned that he has pocketed the same expense reimbursements that he complains that Greg Lavelle has taken.

So let’s see, both have received expense reimbursements and stipends and annual pay raises along with the pay raises in the quadrennial compensation commission report. Greg Lavelle has pointed out that the annual pay raises are improper given the Compensation Commission raises and so gives those raises to charity to the tune of $30,000. In other words, Greg feels that legislators shouldn’t get two pay raises at a time (one automatically and the other voted on in the annual budget), so he returns his by giving it to charity.

Doc Mike? He pockets both sets of pay raises, and whines. My understanding is that Doctors take a Hippocratic oath. Looks like Doc Mike also took a hypocritic oath, too…